Reformed Presbyterian Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Relatively small and simple two storey gabled church at the E end of the S side of Regent Street.

Front (N) gable has a fairly recent (1970s) gabled porch projection with central timber sheeted double doors set in a segmental arch recess. To the left of this is a modern window with similar arch head and modern frame. Three similar windows to the right the 3rd of which is located with a flat roofed section to the W side of the porch. The porch gable has a high level roundel plaque which reads ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church 1854’ (the date in which the building was bought from the Methodists). Raised PVC letters below roundel and Reformed Presbyterian banner symbol in PVC above. The E face of the porch has a squat modern window to the side, than those to the front.

The exposed section of the N gable of the main section of the church is blank with plain outer pilasters, narrow parapet and tall pyramidal pinnacles to gable apex and ends of gable.

The E facade has 6 semicircular headed windows to the ground floor with a similar shaped doorway (with timber sheeted door and semicircular fanlight) between 1st and 2nd windows. To the first floor are seven similar (but much shorter) windows. All windows have modern frames.

It is difficult to observe the W facade as it abuts the neighbouring buildings. Judging from the interior, however, this facade would appear to be blank. The rear of the church merges with the terrace in Lower Mary Street.

The front and E facades are finished in lined and painted render. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates. Velux window to E side. PVC rw goods. Rendered wall to front.

Historical information

This building was originally constructed in 1808 for the Methodist Church and is described in the OS Memoirs of c.1834 as ‘of the plainest description and is not, by any means, an ornament to the town’. In 1854 it was sold to the Newtownards Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, a body which originated in Conlig in 1772 and transferred to Ann Street in Newtownards in c.1795.
The church is shown on the OS maps of 1834 and 1858-60 with a smaller porch to the front. The new porch and the hall to the rear were added in the 1970s. The pine ceiling was ‘rediscovered’ after bomb damage in 1993 and subsequently restored (for some time prior to this it had been covered in modern tiling).

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS Maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 6.
2 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.106.
3 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 6.

Secondary sources
1 Trevor McCavery 'A Covenant Community: a history of Newtownards Reformed Presbyterian Church' (Newtownards 1997).
2 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown: a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), p.109.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Relatively small and simple Reformed Presbyterian church, originally built as a Methodist Church in 1808. The church was extended at the rear and a new porch added in the 1970s and now sports modern window frames. The interior is plain and unremarkable, with a modern hall and offices to the rear.